View File photoBelly dancers Marie Brannon, front, and Kelly Densmore, back, provide entertainment during last year?s Age of Chivalry Renaissance Festival at Sunset Park.
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Hear ye, hear ye. By declaration of the Queen of the Realm, serfs and wenches, knights and ladies alike are invited to a celebration in her majesty's honor.
The 16th annual Age of Chivalry Renaissance Festival returns Friday through Sunday at Sunset Park, 2601 E. Sunset Road. With the announcement of the fair's first masquerade ball, lovers of all things medieval are sure to enjoy a festival filled to the brim with queens and jousts, fairies and goblins, princes and kings.
Michelle Roth, a fashion design professional who joined the festival cast last year, will be reprising her role as the queen.
"I had such a blast last year that I just couldn't give it up," Roth said. "And this year there are all sorts of fun and unique events that we haven't done before."
Events will include the Kids Court, where children of all ages will be permitted to approach the queen and accept a token from her.
"It's cool because they can come and meet me and chat and have something to take home as a souvenir," Roth said. "They can meet me all three days if they want to."
Adults also will have the opportunity to meet with Roth in character as she holds court after authentic jousting tournaments.
"It's all part of the fantasy," Roth said. "You can get a blessing, a knighting, whatever you want. It's all very surreal."
Other activities will include a masquerade ball, where partygoers are invited to come in costume, have tea with the queen and observe a historical wedding.
"My husband and I are actually really renewing our vows during the ceremony," Roth said. "But it will all be done with historical accuracy and pomp and circumstance. The way it would have happened in medieval times."
The fair also will include Celtic rock concerts, strolling minstrels, gladiator battles, belly dancers, full-contact jousting, bow and arrow and guild demonstrations, a pirate ship and village, authentic medieval food and hundreds of vendors hocking medieval-type wares.
"It's a lot like being in a movie when you walk around the fair," said Clark County Parks and Recreation cultural specialist Lyon Davis. "It all looks so real, and many of our vendors use very old methods for doing what they do. They actually use the methods that were used hundreds of years ago."
County officials estimate that 50,000 people will attend the fair's three-day stint. Visitors are not permitted to bring food, drinks, lawn chairs or blankets into the event.
Ticket prices range from $10 for adults to $5 for seniors and children.
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